The e-car: Electronics technology applied to sustainable mobility, Part 11

This blog series highlights the importance of the electronics technology in making the driving experience enhanced for different driving aspects. One of the more interesting trends that are taking place in the automotive scenario is virtual reality to assist the driver in experiencing an augmented reality, thus improving safety and comfort in different situations (see Figure 1):

“At CES 2019, Nissan unveiled its future vision for a vehicle that helps drivers “see the invisible” by merging both real and virtual worlds, creating the ultimate connected-car experience. Throughout out the day, Nissan will demonstrate the future of driving to CES visitors through an interactive, three-dimensional immersion experience at Nissan’s display.” (Source: YouTube)

Figure 1

The Demo video of the I2V (acronyms of Invisible to Visible) technology by Nissan (Source: YouTube)

I2V represents a big step in the direction of an effective interactivity between the driver and the environment by means of the smart e-car empowered by ever-advancing progress in electronics technology (see Figure 2):

“Nissan wants to turn car windshields into portals to a virtual world. At CES 2019, the Japanese automaker will demonstrate what it calls “invisible-to-visible” (I2V) tech. While the name makes it sound like witchcraft, I2V is just a way to overlay information from a car’s onboard sensors, as well as the cloud, onto the driver’s field of view. Think of it as augmented reality (AR) on a larger scale. I2V relies on a system called Omni-Sensing to act as a hub for the relevant data, which is organized and displayed as graphics floating around relevant objects — just like in a video game. In fact, the entire platform was developed by Unity Technologies which started out in the gaming business. Drivers can also connect to what Nissan calls the “Metaverse” a virtual environment shared with other users. It allows people to appear inside the car as virtual avatars, according to Nissan.” (Source: Digital Trends)

Figure 2

The I2V technology, an augmented reality solution on a large scale (Source: digitaltrends.com)

Virtual reality is one of the fastest emerging trends in the automotive industry; indeed, many large electronics companies are developing an increasingly wider product portfolio for automotive applications (see Figure 3).

Figure 3

The application scenario for the STMicroelectronics Company includes both virtual Augmented Reality and Autonomous Driving (Source: st.com)

What do you think of this approach to an interactive connection of driver and smart e-car?